Los Angeles (AFP) - St.Louis slugger Albert Pujols became just the fourth Major League Baseball player to hit 700 home runs on Friday, with two homers against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 42-year-old Dominican, playing in what he says is his final season, joined Barry Bonds (762 home runs), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714) as the only players to reach the milestone.
Pujols and Aaron are the only two with at least 3,000 hits and 700 homers.
Pujols, who had hit his 698th career homer in a win over Cincinnati last Friday, hit No.699 off Dodgers starting pitcher Andrew Heaney in the third inning -- a 434-foot two-run blast to left-field that gave St.Louis a 2-0 lead.
Pujols came to the plate again in the next inning with two runners on base.
With left-hander Heaney replaced by right-handed reliever Phil Bickford on the mound, the result was the same.
Pujols smacked another ball into Dodger Stadium's left-field bleachers to make it 5-0 in a game the Cardinals would go on to win 11-0.
A crowd of 50,041 at Dodger Stadium gave him a standing ovation, with chants of "Albert!Albert!" ringing out from behind the St.Louis dugout.
After rounding the bases, Pujols greeted retired Dominican great Adrian Beltre before he was congratulated by his St.Louis teammates outside the dugout.
Pujols, an 11-time All-Star who won World Series titles in 2006 and 2011, said after the game that it was hard to grasp the magnitude of the milestone.
"It's very special," he said."When it's really going to hit me (is) when I'm done, at the end of the season when I've retired."
'Not focused on numbers'
Pujols now has 21 home runs this season, 14 of them coming since August 10.
His 18 20-homer seasons are the third-most ever, behind Aaron's 20 and Bonds's 19.
He joined Ted Williams as the only players to hit 20 homers in both their first and last major league seasons.
Earlier this month, he passed former Yankees star Alex Rodriguez for fourth place on MLB's career homers list with his 697th.
Pujols said he does not discount that kind of achievement, but as long as he is playing he remains focused on chasing a third World Series crown.
"Since day one when I made my debut I was never about the numbers, never about chasing numbers," he said."It was always about winning championships and trying to get better in this game.I had so many people that taught me the right way early in my career.
"That's why I really don't focus on the numbers.I will, one day."
But plenty of others are focused on Pujols's pursuit of history.
The three-time Most Valuable Player was feted before Friday's game and he thanked the crowd for "bringing back the joy" he felt when he first played the game.
Pujols has hit 466 of his 700 homers for the Cardinals, the team that drafted him in 1999.
He starred for 11 seasons in St.Louis before inking a 10-year, $240 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels, where he stayed until a brief stint with the Dodgers last season.
He signed a one-year contract to return to the Cardinals for his 22nd campaign, and even as his pursuit of 700 has electrified St.Louis fans he has insisted he will not extend a career that saw him hit his first major league home run on April 6, 2001, at Arizona.
